Hundreds Of Africans Swarm Military Base Where U.S. Wants To Quarantine Ebola Patients

Young Kenyans held demonstrations against their government at the gates of the Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya, protesting U.S. plans to quarantine Ebola patients at the base.

Hundreds of Kenyans marched to the base on Monday, June 1, the same day there were reports of U.S. military aircraft arriving at the base with equipment and staff. The demonstrators argue that Kenya’s health care system cannot sustain Ebola patients held in the country.

The Wall Street Journal reported that under the Trump administration, there has been a hastened effort to build a quarantine facility for American citizens who have been exposed to or are currently infected with Ebola after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which sits around 350 miles west of Kenya. Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary of Health Aden Duale said on Sunday that the isolation center was “for everyone” and not limited to Americans.

Malin Ndegwa, a local resident, believes Kenya would be put at risk by the facility, stating, “Why are they not doing it in the DRC? Why are they not doing it in Uganda? Why must they bring it here? So we are saying, we categorically, no negotiations, no public participation, we want nothing. We want that facility taken out of our town, we want it taken out of Kenya.”

The facility was said to be in operation at the end of last week with 50 quarantine beds, according to the Associated Press. The Nairobi court, however, halted U.S. plans to continue with the quarantine facility, the BBC reported. High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi ruled that the facility posed “grave and imminent risks” to public health.

The court stated their ruling was put in place to restrain government agencies from “establishing, operationalising, facilitating, approving or permitting” any type of quarantine center related to Ebola, not exclusive to any single foreign government.

The suspension of the Ebola facility will be in place until the case is heard.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a recent statement that the U.S. government intends to pledge $13.5 million for Ebola preparedness in Kenya, but some Kenyan officials aren’t happy with that handout. Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu even argued that it would “expose our people to Ebola.”

The Associated Press reported that there are currently at least 282 confirmed cases of Ebola in the DRC and over 1,000 suspected cases of the species of Ebola called the Bundibugyo virus, which has no treatment or vaccine.

Per the CDC, NYC health officials have begun screening passengers arriving at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. The public health screening will be conducted for “individuals arriving from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks in the region.”

As of Monday, the CDC says the assessed risk to the general U.S. public health is low, with evaluations on the situation continuing as it evolves.

According to CDC data, an estimated 250 people have died as a result of the Ebola outbreak in both the DRC and Uganda, but the total number of cases and deaths remains disputed.